Southern California -- this just in

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby won the race to succeed disgraced former legislator Mike Duvall, capturing 62.9% of the vote, election returns showed this morning.

Norby, 60, a Republican, had been heavily favored over Democrat John MacMurray, 63, and Jane Rands, 43, of the Green Party in the 72nd Assembly District. GOP voters account for 43% of registered voters in the district, which includes all or parts of Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton, La Habra, Orange, Placentia and Yorba Linda.

MacMurray won 31% and Rands 6.1%, according to election night returns.
In the Nov. 17 special primary election, the three Republican candidates together earned almost 70% of the ballots cast. However, none of the five candidates mustered a majority, thus necessitating Tuesday’s runoff.

Norby was able to raise at least $274,000, according to reports on file with the secretary of state -- enough for a substantial mail campaign to voters. Public middle school teacher MacMurray, who records show collected about $28,000, tapped a cadre of volunteers and his campaign website to turn out his voters. Rands, a systems engineer, raised about $3,600.

Tuesday’s runoff seemed anticlimactic compared with the contentious open primary. In that race, Norby battled fellow Republicans Linda Ackerman -- longtime GOP activist and the wife of former state legislator Dick Ackerman -- and political newcomer Richard Faher, as well as MacMurray and Rands.

Orange County Registrar Neal Kelley estimated the tab for the two special elections would total about $700,000. The elections were necessitated by the resignation of the married Duvall after a television news program broadcast remarks he had made about sexual encounters with a lobbyist or two. The remarks, made to another legislator during a lull in a hearing last summer, were picked up by an open microphone.